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World Porridge Day: Porridge smiles aims to help hungry children

Wednesday, 10th October 2018

UK-based charity Mary’s Meals is today inviting people to get creative when tucking into their breakfast as part of a national campaign aimed at helping some of the world’s poorest children.

To celebrate World Porridge Day today, on Wednesday 10th October, people of all ages can support the school feeding charity by making a smiley face using porridge toppings before posting a picture on social media with the hashtag #PorridgeSmiles.

Mary’s Meals’ latest campaign to raise vital funds and awareness was today supported by a team at People’s Postcode Lottery’s headquarters in Edinburgh who joined the fun by creating their own porridge smiles.

Mary’s Meals provides more than 1.3 million hungry children in 17 countries around the world with a daily meal in their place of education.

For children receiving meals in Malawi, Zambia and Liberia, the simple mug of porridge they receive attracts them to school and provides the nourishment and energy needed to focus on their education.

People can support the charity’s campaign by hosting a Porridge Smiles party any time in October. MasterChef winner Gary Maclean has already teamed up with Mary’s Meals by creating a ‘porridge selfie’ for the campaign.

Commenting on its support for the Porridge Smiles campaign, Callum Aitken, programmes adviser within the charities team at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “Players have given incredible support to Mary’s Meals over the years and we are delighted to be part of this campaign on World Porridge Day which highlights how life-changing a simple meal can be for a hungry child.”

Players of People’s Postcode Lottery are a key supporter of Mary’s Meals and a series of awards from its Postcode African Trust has so far allowed the charity to reach thousands of hungry children across Africa, in countries including Malawi, Liberia, Zambia and Kenya.

Families, friends, classmates and colleagues across the country can come together to host a fundraising porridge party. Porridge Smiles can be shared on social media using #PorridgeSmiles, while donations can be made by texting ‘OATS18 £2’ to 70070 to provide a hungry child with a meal in school for an entire month.

Kirsty White, Fundraising Manager at Mary’s Meals, said it was great to see so many people getting behind the World Porridge Day celebrations.

She said: “Creating Porridge Smiles is a great way to support the work of Mary’s Meals, while bringing people together to make a real difference in the lives of hungry children and allowing them to reach their full potential.”

Mary’s Meals’ Porridge Smiles campaign is being supported by official porridge partner Stoats. Tony Fullerton from Stoats said: “Oats are at the heart of everything we do, so it’s the perfect fit for us to support Mary’s Meals as they provide vitamin enriched maize porridge to hungry children every school day.

“By sharing #PorridgeSmiles with you friends, family and colleagues and donating to Mary’s Meals, you can help make hungry children smile.”